Head Coaches Taking Ownership Of Mistakes And Losses

We have long pointed out how Karl Dorrell looks for scapegoats, coaches/players/refs/playing conditions/injuries, whenever we lose or have a bad season.  The evidence is far too long to list.  If you want to see what a real coach does when put in the same situation, you only have to look as far as Pauley Pavilion and Ben Howland. We have our own example of a real head coach taking ownership of decisions he makes and ownership of the outcomes of games his teams play in.  We are going to show you a few examples of what we mean, and maybe Dan Guerrero or Karl Dorrell himself will be reading this and get the message.

Our own Ben Howland, on losing at Oregon last year by 2 due to a blown final play call: 

"The last play of the game was really my fault. I wanted to go for the win," Howland said. "I thought we would be able to penetrate and kick out for a 3, and it wasn't there. We were really tentative and did not get a good shot at the end of the game."

See also Texas Tech coach Mike Leach on losing to Oklahoma State last Saturday to go to 3-1 after having the lead.  Obviously, as a coach of young men, sometimes it's necessary for discipline and for calling out your players en-mass in order to inspire or push them.  But before Leach pointed out that his team was reading too many press-clippings and was playing soft (you reading this Dorrell?), Leach made it very clear where the blame lies:

"This is going to hurt some feelings," Leach said, "but the long story short is I'm not doing as good a job shepherding this as I could. But what we had in this game is an offense that was extremely powerful, extremely productive that probably sits and reads their press clippings, and in arrogant fashion, set around the sidelines with their arms folded for most of the second half. 

"We start by addressing it and call it what it is. I think perhaps I've candy-coated some of this a little too much in the past," Leach said. "Second of all, as coaches, you put pressure on yourself to improve because ultimately the blame lies there."

Unlike Dorrell, Howland and Leach are not afraid to say they are at fault. Maybe it's because they KNOW they can coach, that they have coaching talent. They aren't so insecure that they can't address failures head on.  Dorrell obviously doesn't have enough confidence in his own abilities to take ownership of failure.  He needs to point the finger of blame elsewhere to deflect criticism.  Bill Callahan is on the hot seat at Nebraska in only his 4th season and has a better record than Dorrell at 24-15.  In his 4th season he has his team, like Dorrell, at 3-1, but Nebraska fans are not happy and Callahan knows it and doesn't shy away from addressing it:

"There is criticism out there. I'm sure I'm at the heart of it," Callahan said during a conference call with reporters. "All I'm going to do is the best I can. There is a lot of season. You have to change where you're at from a performance standpoint and really change anything that you can to tweak and get your team going."

Then there are coaches like Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy defending his QB from tabloid criticism from a local beat reporter.  In the now internet famous rant, Gundy makes his point clear: Go after him, he is the coach and he is responsible.  Here is the direct video link (HT to Nestor at BruinsNation).

Bookmark to: